Near-stoichiometric barium titanate synthesis by low temperature hydrothermal reaction

Abstract

Barium-deficiency of barium titanate particles prepared by low temperature hydrothermal reaction has been notorious. It has been believed that barium-deficiency is caused by the high solubility of barium source compared with titanium. Here is reported the synthesis of near-stoichiometric barium titanate powders with ultrafine particle size and high crystallinity by low temperature hydrothermal reaction from barium acetate and titanium tetra(methoxyethoxide). Barium titanate particles were synthesized in the spherical, metastable cubic crystalline grains with size distribution between 60-90 nm in diameter. Ultrafine particle size was resulted from the control of the hydration rate and the decrease of Ti-O-Ti cross-linking extent of titanium precursor. Increasing barium to titanium molar ratio in reactant could not overcome the notorious barium-deficiency but, improved stoichiometry and produced finer and less agglomerated particles. Interestingly, adding a slight pressure to autogeneous one to make total 4-10 atm has yielded near-stoichiometric, highly crystalline, and less agglomerated barium titanate particles. It seems like that the total pressure around 4-10 atm provides strong force enough to push barium ions into the interstitial points of perovskite structure and stabilize it. These particles, which were in metastable cubic form as synthesized, initiated phasetransition to tetragonal form by calcination at 400°C.